Tales from a Nuzlocke: The Difference
by Helix Walker
Summary: Giratina learns about the mortal world and its endless frustrations. A story from a recent Nuzlocke run, embellished slightly for creative purposes.


A circle of stones erupted from the earth, spiraling into the air around the beast.

I AM GIRATINA. HORROR BEYOND MORTAL COMPREHENSION. WIELDER OF THE FORCES OF CREATION AND ANNIHILATION.

The dragon's body pulsed, its varying appendages twitching with increasing speed, strength, and size. The stones accelerated in their spiraling, spinning in a dizzying dance.

I EXISTED BEFORE. I EXIST AFTER. I EXIST BEYOND.

The stones suddenly diverted from their path, flowing through the air in a fluid, perfectly controlled stream into the target, hammering it with a torrent of rock.

The dust settled, revealing a wild Magneton floating midair, somewhat dented but for the most part unharmed. Its orbs rotated midair, effectively shaking off dust and small rocks.

SO WHY CAN I NOT DEFEAT SUCH AN INSIGNIFICANT PEST AS THESE... METAL SPHERES?!

Giratina roared in frustration and launched itself at the Magneton, tackling the trio of orbs to the ground and digging its dragon-like claws into the hard steel to punctuate each angry word.

THIS. MAKES. NO. SENSE.

It hurled the Magneton backwards toward a nearby boulder, but the Magneton slowed itself midair and rotated about to come to face the beast. A surge of electricity discharged from it, arcing toward Giratina and shocking it mildly. Giratina glared at it angrily.

Until a blob of mud struck it square in the eye of one its three orbs, coating it liberally and sending it careening to the earth, disoriented, where it crashed unconscious.

Giratina turned with a look of absolute incredulity to the nearby Quagsire. Slogger returned its baleful stare with a happy "I'm helping!" grin and then dove back into the mud in which it was playing.

Giratina unleashed a howl of pure rage that visibly reverberated the air around it and whirled, disappearing on the spot and reappearing in front of Jenny.

WHY? WHY? WHY CAN THE FOOLISH ONE HARM THE CREATURE OF IRON AND AETHER, YET I CANNOT?

"I told you, the entire Magnemite line is weak to ground type."

I HURLED BOULDERS AT IT. HOW IS THAT NOT GROUND?!

"That's technically rock. Not ground." Sensing that Giratina was possibly literally about to bite her head off, she pushed her glasses up her nose and continued. "Yes, ground is similar to rock, but it's finer and more entropic, heterogeneous in composition with additional carbon-"

THESE DIFFERENCES ARE SMALL AND SHOULD NOT MATTER AT THE LARGER SCALE.

"But they do. It makes a difference when you're in the thick of things. The crystalline structure is entirely different-"

BAH

Giratina whirled around and stormed away. Jenny stood still, watching it go. And she let the thoughts she'd been holding at arm's length throughout the training battle slowly drift back to her.

Arcs of lightning contorting through space, curving unnaturally and unpredictably in the Distortion World, unable to hit their target. Purple earth convulsing as Cyrus's Gyarados swam through it, sending ripples of tectonic force through the rocky platforms. An impromptu earthquake that played havoc with the native EM fields. And Maggy, her Magnezone, flung into the void, drifting away, helpless, one of its Magnemites sheared clean off from the whole by the sudden EM fluxes generated by the earthquake in the unpredictable space...

Jenny felt something that brought her out of her thoughts. She looked down and saw Sniddberry's tentacle on her shoulder, the Tentacruel watching Giratina go himself. She smiled sadly.

* * *

Giratina levitated a boulder and hurled it toward the sea angrily, then blasted it into dust with a strike of ghostly wind before it could land in the water. Shrapnel scattered in a conical splash pattern. The beast glared at it, as though irritated by the ripples the pieces made, before repeating the process an eighth time.

 _She's right, you know._

Giratina paused and looked down the coastline. Empathos was levitating a short distance away at the shoreline, the Alakazam floating cross-legged, its eyes closed in meditation.

Giratina's eldritch eyes bored icily into the side of Empathos's head, but the Alakazam either could not sense the ghostly pressure or chose to ignore it in his meditation. After about thirty seconds of holding this, the Giratina finally gave a motion that could possibly be interpreted as an exasperated sigh.

HOW SO?

 _The altered composition of the ground may seem insignificant, but the differences have very real effects to the beings that live upon it. Magnemites live within the magnetic and electrical fields that permeate their environments, effectively swimming through them as you do through spatial curves. These fields conduct well through the uniform, repeating structures of rock. But the non-uniform composition of ground disrupts these magnetic and electric fields, simultanously blinding Magnemites and rendering them unable to fly. To say the least of any internal damage they might suffer as a result of interference to the electrical signals that govern its bodily functions._

Giratina seemed to consider this for a time. Empathos gave a slight inclination of his head, and Giratina reluctantly slunk over to Empathos and settled itself on the shoreline beside him.

THE DIFFERENCES IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS SEEM SMALL TO ME, BUT I SUPPOSE THESE THINGS YOU SAY MAKE SENSE, WHEN CONSIDERING IT FROM HOW IT AFFECTS THE IRON ONES.

 _Well, I suppose that's the real difference, then._

Giratina waited. IN WHAT? it ventured.

 _Between observing something from afar, and experiencing it for yourself. Tell me: how many of the actions we mortals took did not make sense to you as you observed them from the Distortion World?_

MANY OF THEM. THEY APPEARED CHAOTIC. INCONSEQUENTIAL.

 _But now?_

Giratina paused for another long moment, considering. FEWER OF THEM.

The two sat in silence for a time.

 _Tell me something. Why did you choose to accompany us?_

YOUR TRAINER CAUGHT ME.

At this, Empathos opened his eye a small slit to look at Giratina.

 _Did she, now._

A familiar scene flashed through Giratina's mind, but seen from Empathos's perspective. It watched Empathos's memory of Giratina vanishing into a pokeball in the Distortion World. But in addition to the visual images, Giratina could also feel the currents of emotion and thoughts that the Alakazam could read from each person and pokemon there. Hateseed's defiance and newfound sense of determination and loyalty as the Umbreon spit up ectoplasmic gunk, ready to sink its jaws into the dragon once more if need be and not let go. Sniddberry's focus as it held the rocks steady, his tentacles stretched to their limits to create habitable space for the team to stand upon. Virgil's sense of helplessness as it held Cynthia aloft nearby, the Noctowl knowing it couldn't lift two people if it came to it. Jenny's resolve and pain, as well as her hope.

And a sense of cold curiosity emanating from a pokeball as it unexpectedly clicked shut.

Giratina was silent.

Empathos waited.

I SUPPOSE YOU COULD SAY... I WAS INTERESTED. I WANTED TO KNOW WHY. WHY A GROUP OF TRESPASSERS WOULD CHOOSE TO ENTER MY REALM IN PURSUIT OF THE DISRUPTOR, WAGE A BATTLE, AND THEN CHALLENGE ME IN THE HEART OF MY DOMAIN. BEINGS THAT I HAD IDLY OBSERVED, AS I OBSERVE MANY OF THEIR KIND, THOUGH I NEVER DID UNDERSTAND THEIR MOTIVATIONS. IT WAS... A THING THAT HAD NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. I WANTED TO KNOW WHY.

 _And? Have you found an answer to any of your questions?_

Giratina was silent once more. Until finally: IT... IS COMPLICATED. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. LIVING IN THE THICK OF IT, RATHER THAN OBSERVING IT FROM AFAR.

A small smile flashed across Empathos's lips before it returned to its meditation.

 _Yes. I suppose it does._


End file.
